Markets in Everything: Panhandling

In Memphis, a local FOX News reporter, Jason Carter, donned old
clothes and hit the streets earlier this year, earning about $10 an
hour. “Just the quasi-appearance of being homeless filled my cup,”
Carter observed. That all the money is beyond the tax man’s clutches
adds to the allure of professional panhandling.

Carter prepared for his stint on the street by surfing the Internet,
where a variety of websites dispense panhandling advice. NeedCom, for
example–subtitled “Market Research for Panhandlers”–offers tips from
Baker and other pros on how to hustle. The website’s developer, Cathy
Davies, wants it to get people “thinking about panhandling as a
realistic economic activity, rather than thinking that panhandlers are
lazy or don’t work very hard.”

More here, overly sensationalistic but interesting in parts.

Thanks to Tim Groseclose for the pointer.